The Reconstructed School eBook

A PRELIMINARY SURVEY OF THE TASK BEFORE THE SCHOOL

When people come to think alike, they tend to act
alike; unison in thinking begets unison in action.
It is often said that the man and wife who have spent
years together have grown to resemble each other; but
the resemblance is probably in actions rather than
in looks; the fact is that they have had common goals
of thinking throughout the many years they have lived
together and so have come to act in unison. The
wise teacher often adjusts difficult situations in
her school by inducing the pupils to think toward
a common goal. In their zeal for a common enterprise
the children forget their differences and attain unison
in action as the result of their unison in thinking.
The school superintendent knows full well that if
he can bring teachers, pupils, and parents to think
toward a common goal, he will soon have unity of action.
When people catch step mentally, they do the same
physically, and as they move forward along the paths
of their common thinking, their ways converge until,
in time, they find themselves walking side by side
in amiable and agreeable converse.

In the larger world outside the school, community
enterprises help to generate unity of thinking and
consequent unity of action. The pastor finds
it one of his larger tasks to establish a focus for
the thinking of his people in order to induce concerted
action. If the enterprise is one of charity,
the neighbors soon find themselves vying with one another
in zeal and good will. In the zest of a common
purpose they see one another with new eyes and find
delight in working with people whose society they
once avoided. They can now do teamwork, because
they are all thinking toward the same high and worthy
goal; lines of demarcation are obliterated and spirits
blend in a common purpose. Unity of action becomes
inevitable as soon as thinking becomes unified.

Cooeperation follows close upon the heels of community
thinking. In the presence of a great calamity,
rivalries, differences of creed and party, and long-established
animosities disappear in the zeal for beneficent action.
In the case of fire or flood people are at one in their
actions because they are thinking toward the common
goal of rescue. They act together only when they
think together. Indeed, cooeperation is an impossibility
apart from unified thinking. Herein lies the efficacy
of leadership. It is the province of the leader
to induce unity of thinking, to animate with a common
purpose, knowing that united action will certainly
ensue. If he can cause the thinking of people
to center upon a focal point, he establishes his claim
to leadership.